Joined: 11 Nov 2008 Posts: 558 Location: Lancashire
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:33 am Post subject:
CCTV turning our world into a virtual world for sleuths and nosy people :
Who is watching you on CCTV?
The UK is one of the heaviest users of CCTV in the world but for many shops, there is nobody to monitor the cameras so internet users are being invited to help in return for cash prizes.
A network of CCTV cameras monitors the centre of London and, deep underground, trained professionals monitor the 120 feeds, coordinating the search for everyone from terrorists to petty thieves.
But for smaller shops, monitoring CCTV can be too expensive and too labour intensive to be practical.
A controversial website called Internet Eyes. invites British internet users to fill in the gaps. For £13 a year, subscribers can become part-time crime fighters.
Subscribers are shown live streams of CCTV from two convenience stores somewhere in the country. If they spot something suspicious, the shop-owner can be alerted to a potential thief.
Robert Stevenson explains why he signed up to Internet Eyes
If the tip-off turns out to be correct, three points are earned. And in this scheme, points mean prizes - £1,000 for the subscriber who bags the most catches in a single month.
"I feel I'm contributing to public safety and crime prevention - simply by having it running in the background," says Robert Stevenson, an Internet Eyes viewer.
"I could be using another application quite solidly. But out of the corner of my eye, if I see something happening I will simply click on the alert button. Within seconds the user is alerted and hey presto a crime could be prevented in real time."
Shopkeeper Kamlesh Patel has been in business for 30 years and has spent much of that time trying to beat the thieves.
"We have 16 cameras in the shop, which I think is not enough," says Patel. But his staff are too busy serving the customers to monitor the CCTV.
Artists and campaigners question the extent to which CCTV is used
"There is no way we can keep our eye on everything," he says. "In the end, we hope this scheme just stops our money and goods just walking out of our shop. It just works as another pair of eyes"
Four of his cameras are connected to the Internet Eyes service using the shop's broadband connection. When a subscriber raises the alarm, Kamlesh receives a text - giving him the chance to stop the thief in his own shop, or call the police.
Crowdsourcing crimespotters
"Small businesses are losing a lot of gear through shoplifting and we've come up with a solution," says Tony Morgan, of Internet Eyes.
"Once we've alerted the problem, the shop owner takes over and our viewers get a new screen, and that's it. So we're not being too intrusive, we're just helping him make a living."
Crowdsourcing crimespotters from the web is not a new idea. Anyone in the world can watch live images from the border between Texas and Mexico and alert the authorities if they see someone attempting to cross illegally.
In Texas the reward for spotting a fugitive is simple - an act of patriotism or an enhanced sense of civic duty.
Critics of amateur schemes say only trained officials should watch footage
But the Internet Eyes scheme takes things further with the monetary reward. And that has raised alarm bells with civil liberty campaigners.
After all, how many people know that popping down the shops for a pint of milk first thing in the morning could be beamed to amateur sleuths across the net?
"If we're going to have so many CCTV cameras in this country then we need to be reassured that they're being operated professionally," says James Welch, legal director of Liberty.
"The problem with this Internet Eyes scheme is that they're effectively setting it up as a competition - people are going to be competing to see who can get the most hits in a month - and this is bound to lead to lots of people being accosted in shops or wherever for the wrong reason.
"But beyond that I think we need to be reassured that people who are monitoring CCTV cameras know what they're looking for and know their obligations under the Data Protection Act - know that they're not supposed to record stuff and pass it on, use it inappropriately."
Software sleuths
A new body of research called "video analytics" could automate the CCTV monitoring process and help reduce worries over privacy.
Live images are analysed and alerts are sent to CCTV supervisors if the programme detects unusual patterns which are thought to be worth investigating.
Another idea involves adding microphones to CCTV cameras to detect distressing noises like car alarms. Rather than working on volume, the software analyses pitch and tone then notifies those monitoring the images that there could be a problem.
But, clever though it is, software is not yet up to making close judgement calls.
For the time being, whether the surveillance is deep underground or simply assigned to an amateur somewhere on the end of an internet connection, keeping the bad guys at bay still needs a human eye.
Salford City Council has collated information from all the CCTV cameras in Salford and merged it with the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) database in an attempt to tackle crime in the area.
"The NLPG is in effect the glue that holds the whole thing together enabling us to accurately locate an incident, identify cameras in the vicinity and secure footage for crime detection. The system has also led to better liaison between partner organisations and agencies resulting in proactive monitoring and increased use of existing resources for applications such as emergency planning, insurance claim investigation and targeting benefit fraud."
Salford City Council was recognised for their innovation and performance by winning the 2009 'National Land and Property Gazetteer' Exemplar Award for Most Innovative Use. Salford CCTV GIS was also awarded the 2008 prize for 'CCTV Innovation and Management' by the CCTV Users Forum.
The National Land and Property Gazetteer | Ivybridge House,1 Adam Street, London, WC2N 6DD.
t 020 7747 3502 | f 020 7747 3501 | e info@nlpg.org.uk
Also located at 1 Adam St London is Intelligent Addressing, (amongst many others at this address) who work in partnership with Oracle, the global database.
Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 2568 Location: One breath from Glory
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:40 pm Post subject:
Our local council has reintroduced 24hr cctv surveillance to help catch litter droppers, people who dont pick up their pets nonsense, as well as real criminals _________________ JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12
Alan Sanchez as he is commonly know, went to his local police station to see if there was a warrant out for the arrest of the name Alan
Sanchez, and if he could deal with the matter.
...He is now being held under the mental health act for not claiming the name.
...
All i know is where he is and contact details....
tel: 01293 590400 (DO NOT CALL NOW UNTIL WE KNOW MORE,THE HOSPITAL HAS HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH CALLS NOW) Thankyou.
Please get as many to call up, write, or visit. The more that do this then the less chance they will hold him and try to drug him up.
ps let me know what you find out.
I CANT GET ONLINE MUCH PLEASE HELP (any way poss) even setting up facebook group etc need the word to go far this was only driving offence and its gone this far.
I have just rung the hospital. I have spoke to alan. He is on the level and is far from crazy. I blasted the hospital for a breach of human rights,i have given alan as much info as possible and he knows he is supported. Please everybody! Lets get him out.
Comments/Updates
Quote:
From Sin Dan "spoke 2 sanchez 2day, they have him under section 2 of the mental health act.Right nowhe's under assessment, whether or not family members, community workers or friends can vouch for him is unclear.
Any suggestions?
they are making him out to be a danger!!!,its pure nonsense,its great that so many people are aware that he was pulled in just because he would not comply with the court system,i just hope they dont stretch this out,and if they drug him whilst he is in there,we should all kick off over this and get to his next court appearence,this country is becoming more like the minority report Nazi country i always thought it was.
Quote:
Just spoke to Alan, he is fine.
His mother is visiting him tomorrow and I am arranging to visit him Thursday afternoon.
Some people have rung the hospital and been quite abusive, so they are are now restricting the calls.
Being Mr Nice I got through straight away.
Quote:
MHA
Hi Barry,
'Your friend needs to recognize you, (or someone you trust) to act as their Independent MHA Advocate, or General Advocate) that way you can access records on your frieneds behalf. you can also act as an "non-instructed independent mental health advocate" which also gives you rights to access information about your friend. Do not be put off by any talk about not being a relative. Because of the public patient involvement in health act, 2007, ? you are allowed to make enquiries about your frinds well being. Ask the hospital about the CPA (care plan approach) make sure they do not discourage you from being involved. Personal visits to the hospital can make the world of difference. Please let me know how you get on.'
Quote:
A small group of close friends from the Freeman Movement will be visiting Alan today (Thursday 21st April.)
After speaking to Alan on the phone, most of what has been posted here is conjecture, we aim to get to the bottom of this series of unfortunate events.
We will keep everybody updated on what has occured.
Barry, Alex & Gina
Quote:
i have changed the discription slightly to stop the phonecalls to the hospital,i think they are now well aware that there are many of us keeping an eye on the situation.It does make a huge difference to how he will be treated whilst in there i reckon.
Quote:
For what it's worth here are the contact details for the local MP. -http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&node Id=400
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Uploaded by crankygeeks on Nov 2, 2007
Fish and chips is about to take on a whole new meaning in England. School-aged children are soon to be fitted with RFID chips, but how long will it be before they smarten up to the system? Find out! _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 12:55 pm Post subject:
Big Brother is getting a brain and it will be based at Scotland Yard
Police buy software to map suspects' digital movements
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/11/police-software-maps-digital- movements
Geotime software, bought by the Met, collates data from social networking sites, satnavs, mobiles and financial transactions
Ryan Gallagher and Rajeev Syal - guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 May 2011
Police have bought software that maps suspects' movements in space and time, in a step towards the futuristic crime detecting imagined in Minority Report. Photograph: John Anderton/AP
Britain's largest police force is using software that can map nearly every move suspects and their associates make in the digital world, prompting an outcry from civil liberties groups.
The Metropolitan police has bought Geotime, a security programme used by the US military, which shows an individual's movements and communications with other people on a three-dimensional graphic. It can be used to collate information gathered from social networking sites, satellite navigation equipment, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs.
Police have confirmed its purchase and declined to rule out its use in investigating public order disturbances.
Campaigners and lawyers have expressed concern at how the software could be used to monitor innocent parties such as protesters in breach of data protection legislation.
Alex Hanff, the campaigns manager at Privacy International, called on the police to explain who will decide how this software will be used in future.
"Once millions and millions of pieces of microdata are aggregated, you end up with this very high-resolution picture of somebody, and this is effectively what they are doing here.
"We shouldn't be tracked and traced and have pictures built by our own government and police for the benefit of commercial gain," he said.
Sarah McSherry, a partner at Christian Khan Solicitors, which represents several protesters in cases against the Metropolitan police, said: "We have already seen the utilisation of a number of tactics which infringe the right to peaceful protest, privacy and freedom of expression, assembly and movement. All of these have a chilling effect on participation in peaceful protest. This latest tool could also be used in a wholly invasive way and could fly in the face of the role of the police to facilitate rather than impede the activities of democratic protesters."
Hugh Tomlinson QC, a specialist in privacy, said a public body such as the police must be able to justify the lawfulness of how it uses the information it collects and retains.
"Storing data because it's potentially interesting or potentially useful is not good enough. There has got to be some specific justification," he said.
According to Geotime's website, the programme displays data from a variety of sources, allowing the user to navigate the data with a timeline and animated display. The website claims it can also throw up previously unseen connections between individuals.
"Links between entities can represent communications, relationships, transactions, message logs, etc and are visualised over time to reveal temporal patterns and behaviours," it reads.
The software was displayed in Britain earlier this month at the defence industry Counter Terror exhibition in Olympia, west London. Curtis Garton, product management director for Oculus, the company that markets the programme, said the Metropolitan police was the only UK police force to have purchased the software. "[There are] a few countries that we don't sell to, but in terms of commercial sales pretty much anybody can buy," he said.
The issue of data retention and how it is used has become a major political and judicial issue. The European justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, said in March that data protection rules also applied to data retention. "Individuals must be informed about which data is collected and for what purposes," she said. "To be effective, data protection rights need to actually be enforced."
The Guardian disclosed last week that an 86-year-old man had been granted permission to take legal action against police chiefs who kept a detailed record of his political activities on a clandestine database.
John Catt, who has no criminal record, is bringing the high court action against a secretive police unit that systematically logged his presence at more than 55 peace and human rights protests over a four-year period.
Some academics have praised the software as a positive move for the police in their fight against terrorist groups and organised crime.
Professor Anthony Glees, director of the University of Buckingham's Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said he was aware of tracking software such as Geotime, the use of which he described as "absolutely right".
"There are these dangerous people out there and we need to stay ahead of the game in order to deal with the threat that they pose," he said. "My feeling is: if it can be done, and if its purpose is the protection of the ordinary citizen that wants to go about their lawful business ... then it's absolutely fine."
A spokesman for the Met confirmed that Geotime had been paid for, and said several possible uses for it were being assessed, including as a tool in "telephone investigations".
He declined to clarify what a telephone investigation might be or how much the software cost. Neither could he comment on whether the software might be used during investigations into public order offences in the future.
"We are in the process of evaluating the Geotime software to explore how it could possibly be used to assist us in understanding patterns in data relating to both space and time. A decision has yet to be made as to whether we will adopt the technology [permanently]. We have used dummy data to look at how the software works and have explored how we could use it to examine police vehicle movements, crime patterns and telephone investigations," he wrote in an email.
Alongside the Met, the Ministry of Defence is also examining Geotime. A spokesman said: "The MoD is assessing Geotime as part of its research programme but it is not currently being used on operations." _________________ www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org www.rethink911.org www.patriotsquestion911.com www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
Joined: 11 Nov 2008 Posts: 558 Location: Lancashire
Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 8:50 pm Post subject:
This report sort of reminded me just how much has changed since the criminal justice bill was introduced. We now take it for granted that there are no un incorporated venues for any kind of leisure and entertainment.
For those who lived the punk explosion will remember it was only possible because of the venues which were available to anyone who wished to rent the room and staff.
Perhaps we all need a cold shower so we remember what we had and today what we don't :
Joined: 11 Nov 2008 Posts: 558 Location: Lancashire
Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 3:11 pm Post subject:
Now the farmers are getting in on the 'act' (pun intended). I suppose this comes down to the easy life of today's farmer in receipt of EU subsidies to not farm ensuring the supermarket remains king in order Monsanto can offload their filth into the bellies of the trusting masses :
Joined: 11 Nov 2008 Posts: 558 Location: Lancashire
Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 11:28 pm Post subject:
In putting together the case against the DWP and the Jobcentre, specifically the New Deal team, it has come to my attention that for the judges to enforce any law in this country, it can only be so coming within the realm of our current monarch Queen Elizabeth II, this is their oath of office.
This includes all outside bodies such as the United Nations, GAAT, and the European Union. In enforcing statutes coming from these bodies the judiciary are revealing all these bodies to come under the realm of Great Britain.
Joined: 11 Nov 2008 Posts: 558 Location: Lancashire
Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 11:34 pm Post subject:
And speaking of cybersnoops...Lancashire Police are being trained in anti-stalking operations in order they determine when harassment becomes stalking.
How can they possibly operate in this manner without becoming the stalkers themselves?
If the antics of the younger PCSO's is not tantamount to stalking children, then I have no idea what harassment is, but when one looks at the shift in meaning to words in the dictionary over the last century then all is revealed as to how they have implemented statutes over common law
Uploaded by MatteottiPSI on 13 Jun 2011
Protest at Dave Willetts lecture at SOAS, London on 13 June 2011: Seemingly arbitrary arrests at 1:00 - police officer prevents documenting events and noting down shoulder numbers at 3:00 - Man lying on ground is kicked by police officer (EK 751) at 6:22
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
The NOTORIOUSLY bad LEEDS PRISON, commonly known as ARMLEY JAIL where NORMAN SCARTH, 85YRS OLD is being held for filming In bradford crown court & denouncing judge. He has been kept in freezing cold conditions so that he has to keep his clothes on at night, he can't get exercise/time outside because it's a whole hour or nothing, he can't walk round 4 whole hour at his age, he has not got his meds and had only brief access to a doctor. PLZ SHARE
Please Support Norman Scarth, an 85 Yrs old War Veteran Jailed for Contempt
Norman is being held in the NOTORIOUSLY hideous LEEDS PRISON formerly known and still commonly known as ARMLEY JAIL. NORMAN SCARTH, LEEDS PRISON, 2 GLOUCESTER TERRACE, STANNINGLEY ROAD, LEEDS, LS12 2TJ for mail. http://victims-unite.net/2011/07/27/wwii-veteran-jailed-for-audio-reco rding-in-court/ He is 85YRS OLD and has been sentenced to six months for filming in court, denouncing Judge Jonathan Rose who ordered him to hand over his camera pen which of course didn't belong to said judge! Any of us would sensibly and rightly decline any offer or order to hand over our belongings to some stranger, sitting in a high chair, spitting out the babies dummy when not obeyed by those of us perceived to be the SLAVES, who wrongly beLIEve that they have power and authority over us.... Norman then branded the Bradford Court Room (the so called Crown Court which like all of the corrupt so called courts has no right to be described as any such thing- being unlawful) a 'den of evil' (sounds about right to me) on Monday 25th July. He has been kept in freezing cold conditions so that he has had to keep his clothes on at night. He cannot get exercise/time outside because it's a whole hour or nothing- he can't walk round for whole hour at his age!!! He has not got his medications and has had only brief access to a doctor, who was called away, did nothing to help Norman and hasn't returned since. A brief history: Norman has been trying to expose the corrupt judicial system and the judges working in it for15 years since age 70 and at 75years was sentenced to ten years, six in prison and four on licence. This was after he wrote a book, naming names, about several corrupt judges, he stood against Tony Benn as an independent candidate under the banner 'OAPs against crime' which later became 'The Anti Crime Party'. In 1991 (the year he was imprisoned) he was about to stand against Tony Blair in the general election in Blair's Sedgefield CONstituency when, for the second time in less than a year, he was attacked by the police in the place that he was living, seven of them battering down his door. I have seen the photo's they battered him as well as the door!!! Disgraceful and shameful! Of his sentence he served four years in many jails. When he was released, instead of letting him go, they kept him for a further two years in two mental hospitals (I use the word mental because what happens to people in these prison hospitals where they can force injections of poison into people without any CONsent is mental and the staff that are willing to subject men, women and children to this sort of treatment are 'king mental in my opinion- see Psychiatry- Industry of Death and Russell Blaylock- Nutrition and Behaviour the latter which has the research to show that dietary allergens are responsible for mental disEASE). Norman was not and is not mentally ill anyway! Fortunately, nurses and in this case one good doctor would not medicate Norman and got him out after two years, in spite of pretend judges and the top psychiatrist at Newton Lodge saying that, though forced medicating could kill him he needed it- sadly believable. He was 81 years of age when he was finally, or as he is again imprisoned, not so finally, released, which is when I first met him outside of Parliament with his photos and his determination to keep speaking his truth. He is an inspiration at his age to have such strength and resilience and to keep going to PREVENT FASCISM! POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!! Peace and love. If you can do nothing else send him love hold NORMAN in your heart xxx".
WWII Veteran Jailed for 6 months – for Audio Recording in Court
July 27, 2011
Sabine Kurjo McNeill Advocacy, Campaigning, Contempt of Court, Fraudulent imprisonment, Fundamental Rights Charter, Human Rights Convention, judicial remedy, Justice, Law Enforcement, Police harassment, Public Interest, Taking the Law in our Own Hands, The Rule of Law Batman: Arkham City, England, Leeds, McKenzie Friend, Prison, Rocksteady Studios, Rule of law, Sound recording and reproduction, South Wales Police, West Yorkshire, World War II 9 Comments
Once again: you cannot believe it, for you can’t imagine it.
Norman Scarth was born in 1926. He proudly wears the medals he earned fighting against the threat of complete Tyranny. Now in his eighties, his latter years of his retirement have been hijacked by constant harassment and targeting from the authorities. This is the kind of tyranny he and so many others fought - and died fighting against. (And still exist in SO many countries across the world).
Links below set out the history of his case. The Help Norman Campaign calls for sending him things to prison.
He is now imprisoned for 6 months and we fear for his welfare (when detained previously he was roughly handled and injured). His ’CRIME’: AUDIO RECORDING IN COURT.
If you would like to help this “old warrior’, please send mail, a note or a card to him at the address below. All mail is vetted and read, so this is a message from ‘concerned’ friends who are worried about his welfare while imprisoned (and on release). – We need the authorities to know there are many many people from across the world watching out for him.
NORMAN SCARTH
LEEDS PRISON
2 GLOUCESTER TERRACE
STANNINGLEY ROAD
LEEDS
LS 12 2TJ
Anger at Coalition's plan to limit right to legal aid
By Nina Lakhani
Friday, 16 September 2011
Quote:
The Government plans to remove the "fundamental right" to free legal advice for people held in police custody – 27 years after it was introduced to stop miscarriages of justice.
Coalition MPs have voted through one of the most controversial sections of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill which would restrict access to legal advice for criminal suspects. Clause 12 paves the way for secondary legislation to introduce means testing for legal advice for those held in a police station. It would also see the director of legal aid, a post which does not yet exist, decide which detainees deserve legal aid in the "interest of justice" without any right to appeal.
It is part of sweeping changes which aim to cut the legal aid bill by a fifth. Legal campaigners argue clause 12 encroaches on civil liberties and will tarnish the reputation of Britain's justice system. The right to free legal advice was enshrined in the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act after a swathe of miscarriages of justice involving the fabrication of confessions and intimidation of suspects by police in the 70s and early 80s.
The introduction of the duty solicitor scheme, funded at a flat rate by legal aid, enhanced the international reputation of our justice system.
MPs, lawyers and civil liberty groups have condemned the cost-cutting plans as an "erosion of justice" and warn that it will deprive society's most disadvantaged people access to a lawyer. Substantial hidden costs could follow as a result of delays for police while means testing occurs, domestic and European legal challenges and more cases being thrown out of court, they warn. Means testing at the police station is "simply unworkable", insists the Law Society.
Max Hill, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said the Government was meddling with a "fundamental right". "To contemplate some sort of qualitative testing to decide when and if a member of the public should receive legal representation and advice in a police station is deeply alarming."
Andy Slaughter, Shadow Justice Minister, said: "Why the Lib Dems, who claim to be the champions of civil liberties, support this is baffling."
Tom Brake, Lib Dem committee member, last night said he had raised the matter with the Justice Minister, Ken Clarke, and defended his decision to vote through the clause. "We are in the Coalition and raising the matter directly with the minister may be more effective at securing changes in legislation than supporting an opposition amendment."
Opposition MPs are angry that the committee has been given seven days, or 40 hours, to scrutinise the 187-page Bill which includes significant constitutional changes. There was no public consultation about Clause 12 and secondary legislation requires only minimal parliamentary scrutiny, warns Rachel Robinson, policy officer for Liberty, who warns this was one of several proposed legal aid reforms which would "devastate access to justice for great swathes of the population".
Miscarriages of justice
* An official inquiry into a swath of miscarriages of justice in the 1970s and 1980s paved the way for the legal right to a lawyer for detainees in police custody in 1984.
The Birmingham Six were jailed for life in 1975 for pub bombings. The convictions were overturned in 1991 after evidence of police fabrication of confessions and suppression of evidence. The Guildford Four were convicted of a bombing in the same year. The conviction was secured on confessions as a result of coercion, violence and threats by police. Acquitted in 1989. Stefan Kiszko wrongly served 16 years for rape and murder in 1975. He confessed to police after three days of questioning without a solicitor.
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Daniel Boffey, policy editor - guardian.co.uk, Saturday 3 March 2012 21.57 GMT
The police or security services supplied information to a blacklist funded by the country's major construction firms that has kept thousands of people out of work over the past three decades.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that records that could only have come from the police or MI5 have been discovered in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims who were deemed leftwing or troublesome.
The files were collected by the Consulting Association, a clandestine organisation funded by major names in the construction industry.
Its database was seized nearly three years ago, but the extraordinary nature of the information held has only now emerged, following an employment tribunal for one of the victims, Dave Smith, a 46-year-old engineer who had a 36-page file against his name and was victimised repeatedly for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos.
David Clancy, investigations manager at the ICO, told the central London tribunal adjudicating on Smith's claims against construction giant Carillion that "there is information on the Consulting Association files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services".
Speaking to the Observer, Clancy added: "The information was so specific and it contained in effect operational information that wouldn't have formed anything other than a police record."
The scandal will be thrown open to further public exposure in the coming months as a class action by 100 victims against at least 39 companies is set to be pursued in the high court by Hugh Tomlinson QC, currently counsel for several of the phone-hacking claimants. The revelations will inevitably raise fresh questions about the probity of the police in a week in which its relationship with major news corporations, and News International in particular, has come under sharp focus. Last week the Leveson inquiry heard that the police were investigating a "network of corrupt officials" as part of their inquiries into phone hacking and police corruption.
Clancy said he was unable further to trace the specific sources of the information held in the Consulting Association files because it touched on individuals living across the country and stretched over three decades.
He added that the relationship between the Consulting Association and the police and security services appeared to have been nurtured when the organisation went under an earlier guise as the Economic League, at a time when the state was keen to liaise with major building firms to discover as much as it could about Irish construction workers amid the threat of IRA terrorism.
John McDonnell MP, who first raised the issue of blacklisting a decade ago, said he would demand a debate in parliament on what he described as collusion. "I am outraged at the systematic abuse of people's rights. This has destroyed people's lives, broken up families, ensured that people have not been able to earn a living. It has devastated people year after year, and nobody has listened to us. No one has been willing to believe the extent to which there has been collusion between police, security services and companies. It is all about the ability of companies to exploit workers and destroy anybody who stands up against them."
The existence of the secret blacklist was first exposed in 2009, when ICO investigators from the Information Commissioner's Office raided an unassuming office in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
The investigators uncovered an extensive database that was used by construction firms to vet workers they deemed to be trade unionists and troublesome – usually trade unionists. More than 40 construction firms, including Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine, had been funding the confidential database, which recorded workers' trade union activities and conduct at work.
The Consulting Association was closed down and a 66-year-old private investigator, Ian Kerr, was fined £5,000 for administering the database, although the construction firms escaped prosecution. At Smith's tribunal, Carillion admitted that two of its subsidiaries covertly supplied information to the database to "penalise" Smith for being a trade unionist, even though he had "reasonably brought health and safety concerns to their attention". However, Smith lost his claim for £175,000 in lost income because he worked through an agency and was not directly employed by Carillion.
When I read this, I couldn't believe this was still going on as I thought it was years ago that this story broke, way before 2009, unless I'm confusing it with something else.
Imagine if this was discrimination on ethnic or religious grounds ?
If you listen really hard you can just about not hear the hooves of the Equality Commission not galloping anywhere near this case.
. _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
The construction giant Carillion has admitted a construction worker was blacklisted because of his trade union activities and efforts to improve site safety, but has escaped responsibility because he was an agency worker. The revelation came during an employment tribunal last week brought against the firm by engineer and former UCATT safety rep Dave Smith. It ruled the construction firm could not be held liable because agency workers do not enjoy the same legal protection as directly employed staff.
Earlier, the tribunal had heard an admission by Carillion (previously John Mowlem), subsidiary Schal International and forerunner Tarmac that the qualified engineer was blacklisted. The tribunal heard that between 1999 and 2004 Mowlem paid £20,444 to the Consulting Association, which ran the blacklist.
The Central London Employment Tribunal found Dave Smith had been blacklisted by the respondents Carillion (JM) Limited and Schal International Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Carillion) because he raised concerns about asbestos on building sites and because of his trade union activities, but ruled that because he was an agency worker not directly employed by the respondents, they could not be held liable.
Carillion had accepted that Dave Smith had been blacklisted but denied responsibility, arguing that it bought two subsidiaries after they were involved in the practice, a spokesperson saying the company “does not condone any blacklisting, would not itself tolerate any such behaviour.”
Commenting outside the court, Dave Smith said: “The blacklisting conspiracy is a deliberate breach of human rights by big business. Human rights are supposed to apply to everyone but Carillion and their subsidiaries have got away with systematic abuse of power simply because I was an agency worker. If the British justice system does not protect workers’ rights, then we will be taking our case direct to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.”
A secret blacklist file collated by The Consulting Association was presented to the tribunal as evidence and contained Smith’s photograph, address, National Insurance number, work history, car registration, union credentials and information about his family. There was also pages of information about times when Dave Smith had raised concerns about poor toilet facilities or asbestos on building sites.
This information was secretly supplied to the blacklist by managers from major building companies. The blacklist file was covertly shared amongst the 44 largest construction firms in the UK and resulted in periods of unemployment.
Blacklisting had a devastating impact on Dave Smith and his family. “If I ever became the safety rep, literally within one of two days I’d be dismissed,” he told the Mirror. “My income went from £40,000 to £12,000 when they blacklisted me. I was a qualified engineer in the middle of the biggest building boom and my kids were on milk tokens.” He’s claimed that he was owed £175,000 in lost income from building giant Carillion and subsidiaries after being blacklisted.
The tribunal heard alarming new evidence of official complicity in the operation of the blacklist. Former police officer David Clancy, the Information Commissioner’s Office head of investigations who exposed The Consulting Association’s activities, told the tribunal under oath: “There is information on The Consulting Association files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services.” He also told the court that The Consulting Association held information on elected politicians, journalists, lawyers and academics.
Labour MP John McDonnell is supporting the Blacklist Support Group’s campaign for a probe into the blacklisting scandal. Speaking after the tribunal ruled against Dave Smith, he said: “I am calling upon the government to launch a public inquiry into the full extent and impact on people’s lives of blacklisting. These revelations are truly shocking and warrant a detailed and open, public investigation.”
The Blacklist Support Group says the evidence revealed in court is “almost certain” to become a key element in a larger “class action” style claim being brought to the High Court by 100 blacklisted workers in the next few months.
. _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Sun Mar 04, 2012 12:10 pm; edited 2 times in total
A secret blacklisting file opened on an academic who researched health and safety following the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster claims the offshore oil industry threatened to cut funding to his university if he “continued to cause problems”.
Investigative journalist Phil Chamberlain, writing in his Taking out the trash blog, reveals that Professor Charles Woolfson had published extensively on safety regimes in the North Sea while he was industrial relations professor at the University of Glasgow and wrote a well-regarded book, Paying The Piper. However, having his work reported in the media drew him to the attention of The Consulting Association, which opened a file on him in 1995. The organisation was shut down by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2009 and its records seized. Ian Kerr, the man paid to run the Association, was later fined £5,000 for breaching data protection laws.
“This is frankly an unwelcome surprise,” Prof Woolfson said in an interview with Chamberlain. “There is a clear intent to do me professional harm. This organisation and the industry obviously felt sufficiently threatened by critical academic research on safety to put me on a blacklist.” Six months after the file was opened on Woolfson, reports:
Quote:
“Funding from oil industry to Glasgow University may be cut if above activities continue, or there may be a reduction in his activities to prevent this happening.”
Jake Molloy from RMT’s offshore branch told Chamberlain “it is appalling that anybody should be targeted because they are talking about health and safety.” But he added: “I am aware of an incident where a journalist from a global journal became aware that a major oil company had contacted his employer and they were considering pulling all their adverts because of what he was writing. This is the nature of the business you are dealing with. The oil and gas industry is renowned for putting pressure on anybody who challenges or questions them.”
. _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Man behind illegal blacklist snooped on workers for 30 years
• Investigator faces fine or jail for privacy breach
• Leading construction firms bought data on workers
Rob Evans, Severin Carrell and Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 May 2009 18.01 BST
Article history
A private investigator who pleaded guilty today to running an unlawful blacklisting service on building workers has been snooping on trade unionists and political activists for more than 30 years, the Guardian can reveal.
Ian Kerr, of Stoke Heath, in the West Midlands, faces an unlimited fine or prison term after he admitted at Macclesfield magistrates court that he had illegally run a secret database of 3,200 workers, in breach of privacy laws, through an agency known as the Consulting Association.
Building workers at the hearing applauded after the chairman of the bench, Adrian Long, passed the case up to the crown court because his sentencing powers under the Data Protection Act were "woefully inadequate".
The prosecution was brought by the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, after it emerged that Kerr, 66, sold the data to businesses including Balfour Beatty, Sir Robert McAlpine, Laing O'Rourke and Costain, some of the UK's largest construction companies.
As the Guardian revealed in March, the commissioner closed down Kerr's business and sent warning letters to 40 companies because it suspected workers were being unfairly blacklisted. Some of those firms now face prosecution.
A Guardian investigation suggests that Kerr began investigating trade unionists and leftwing activists in the 1970s for the Economic League, a secretive, rightwing vetting organisation set up in 1919.
The league had files on as many as 45,000 people it considered to be "subversive", "troublemakers" and "extreme leftwing". It was paid by more than 2,000 companies to vet potential employees against its list and weed out those it believed were active trade unionists or would be disruptive.
Michael Noar, the league's director-general between 1986 and 1989, said Kerr had worked for the organisation for a long time, infiltrating "a lot" of trade union and political meetings, recording who had said what and taking away documents such as attendance lists.
Noar said: "He was a key guy. He was one of our most effective research people – his information was genuine and reliable."
Kerr refused to discuss his involvement with the league or the source of his records, and did not appear in court today.
His solicitor, James Strong, told magistrates that Kerr was just a Consulting Association employee and "brought in effectively as a data controller" for an unnamed trade association. Strong said Kerr took the court hearing "extremely seriously", but said the public perception that Kerr was involved for "significant financial gain" was "simply not the case."
Minutes from internal Economic League meetings in 1988 show that Kerr liaised with construction companies who were collectively known inside the league as the Service Group. They got greater help with vetting and covert intelligence-gathering on union activists, allegedly leftwing employees and workers who complained about safety or rights at work.
The league had by the late 1980s begun to run into financial trouble as the media and campaigners exposed its controversial methods. Companies stopped subscribing after it emerged it kept inaccurate files, based on hearsay, on individuals unfairly blocked from jobs.
The league minutes show Kerr put forward suggestions about how it could raise more money from the Services Group. A confidential letter from the Costain construction firm to the Economic League in 1988 names Kerr as an important official in the organisation.
The league was wound up in 1993 and at about that time, the information commissioner believes, Kerr took the league files on construction workers and set up the Consulting Association.
For the next 15 years, he was paid by construction firms to run checks on individuals, until his agency was closed down by Thomas's officials. They seized Kerr's entire database and found that some of the files were more than 30 years old; many had been named by the league before it had collapsed.
One card with the letter "K" on it – a code used by the league to designate the building industry – records the trade union and political activities of Alan Ritchie, now general secretary of the Ucatt construction workers' union. It notes he was a "leading striker" at the Govan shipyard in Glasgow.
Other files used by Kerr that date back to the early 1970s, and seen by the Guardian, described one building worker in Liverpool as "politically unstable" and "extreme", while another in Twickenham, London, was sacked after the league named him as a militant strike leader and said he was "identical" to an Irish communist. A third in Wembley was named as a "political menace" because he supported "extreme elements".
Mick Gorrill, an assistant information commissioner, welcomed the case's transfer to the crown court. "Ian Kerr colluded with construction firms for many years flouting the Data Protection Act and ignoring thousands of people's privacy rights," he said.
*
I'm guessing the database has moved on from a card index file nowadays ...
The Economic League was an organisation in the United Kingdom dedicated to opposing what they saw as subversion and action against free enterprise.
The organisation was founded in 1919 by a group of industrialists and then MP William Reginald Hall under the name of National Propaganda. Its chief function was to promote the point of view of industrialists and businessmen. Predating McCarthyism, it worked closely with the British Empire Union. John Baker White worked as the league's Assistant Director, and then from 1926 to 1939 as Director.[1]
They later worked with MI5 to blacklist workers who they suspected of association with certain left wing groups, ranging from the Communist Party of Great Britain to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[citation needed]
The League became more visible in the 1980s, as the press investigated its activities, and questions were asked in Parliament in a campaign against the League, led by Maria Fyfe. It was wound up in 1994, with two of its former directors forming the similar organisation CAPRiM shortly afterwards.[2] Another similar organisation was The Consulting Association which was raided by the Office of the Information Commissioner in February 2009.
The league's running cost was funded by contributions from various companies.
In the early 1980s numerous companies would check out employees with the League to ensure that employeess were not communist-trained with the intent of disruption.
References:
1. ^ Thomas Lineham (2000) British Fascism, 1918-1939: Parties, Ideology and Culture, p. 45
2. ^ Left blacklist man joins euro fight, David Hencke, 9 September 2000, retrieved 14 May 2009
Friends of the Heroes
House of Commons Hansard Debates for 8 Feb 1989
The Economic League - The Silent McCarthyism, Mark Hollingsworth and Charles Tremayne (National Council for Civil Liberties)
Spies at Work, Mike Hughes
Arthur McIvor, '“A Crusade for Capitalism”: The Economic League, 1919-1939”, Journal of Contemporary History 23 (1988), 631-55
Admiral Sir William Reginald "Blinker" Hall, KCMG, CB, RN (28 June 1870 – 22 October 1943) was the British Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI) from 1914 to 1919.
Together with Sir Alfred Ewing he was responsible for the establishment of the Royal Navy's codebreaking operation, Room 40, which decoded the Zimmerman telegram, a major factor in the entry of the United States in World War I.
...
Political career
Upon retirement Hall served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool West Derby from 1919 to 1923, then for Eastbourne 1925-29. As an MP, in 1919 he and a group of industrialists founded a group to counter subversive actions against free enterprise known as National Propaganda, which was later renamed the Economic League (UK).
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Economic League is registered under the Data Protection Act 1984.
Mr. Renton : The Economic League has a single entry in the data protection register, a copy of which is in the Library, covering its processing of personal data for the administration of the organisation.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek to enact legislation to ensure that people blacklisted by the Economic League can obtain access to the files that have caused their blacklisting to check that information.
Mr. Renton : No.
We certainly do not live in a "democracy" do we ...
. _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Imagine if this was discrimination on ethnic or religious grounds ?
No such thing I'm afraid, you see when a company order size 10-14 for kitchen staff and 8-12 front of house you know they are looking for age and looks
Just a load of hot air to demonstrate that corporations are doing the right thing on paper _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
“One of the worst cases of organised human rights abuse ever in the UK”
So said John McDonnell MP in 2009 following the discovery by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of the illegal Consulting Association database containing personal sensitive information about 3,200 building workers. The Consulting Association database was being used for decades as a covert blacklist by 44 of the largest multinational construction firms in the UK with the intention of denying employment to trade union members, stewards and safety representatives. Since 2009, new UK legislation has been passed, the European Parliament has discussed the issue and countless Employment Tribunals have been heard. There are currently plans for a High Court claim and a submission to the European Court of Human Rights. The current electricians’ pay dispute has demanded ‘End the Blacklist’ as one of its central themes throughout the campaign.
Whilst the unions UCATT and UNITE have taken most of the ET claims, the majority of the campaigning has been led by the blacklisted workers themselves under the banner of the Blacklist Support Group.
_________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Uploaded by RussiaToday on 3 Mar 2012
UK web surfers have caught a grim glimpse of the future with Internet users being threatened with 10 years in jail for "illegal downloading" after a prominent music file-sharing site was shut down shortly after Britain signed the notorious ACTA bill.
It is the first time such a move has been made against Internet users in the UK. The British government introduced regulations in 2009 enabling Internet providers to track users who downloaded illegal content from the web and disable their connection if warning letters had no effect. But signing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has brought the conflict to a whole new level.
In Europe, people are taking to the streets in protest at the contradictory Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, with some countries refusing to sign it.
After hackers from the activist group Anonymous attacked practically all US government websites in retaliation, the authorities are now considering adopting their own home-grown anti-counterfeiting laws like PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) / SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).
Uploaded by RussiaToday on 9 Mar 2012
In the UK, the chances are you're being watched. It has more CCTV cameras per person than almost any other nation on earth. And now the government is planning to cast its intrusive eye over online activity, phone calls and text messages, all under the guise of an anti-terror law. And as RT's Ivor Bennett reports it's the taxpayer who may well pay in more ways than one.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Chat
Usergroups
Calendar
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
I got through straight away.
